


Sight And Sound

by Carrot_Bunny



Series: MakoHaru Festival 2015 [10]
Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Handicap AU, M/M, Panic Attacks, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-23
Updated: 2015-02-23
Packaged: 2018-03-14 18:09:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3420527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carrot_Bunny/pseuds/Carrot_Bunny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>" It was the first time in a long, long while he’d dreamt seeing things though, and on the night right after his day out at the pool with Haruka." Written for the Official Makoharu Festival 2015 - it's posted on their Tumblr page now!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sight And Sound

Clouds. Fluffy white clouds against a clear blue sky. Makoto stared up at them as they slowly shifted and changed their shape, mirrored by the pristine water below on which he was floating. He stretched out an arm and could feel somebody’s hand move to meet it, and he instinctively clutched the other’s palm as he turned his head to see sapphire eyes…

Then darkness fell as the alarm clock rang and he sat up in bed.

Most people woke up to sunlight streaming into their eyes, but not him. Not since he lost his eyesight anyway. That had been years ago when he was only starting preschool; by now he had grown accustomed, comfortable even, with the black curtain that veiled his eyes. It was the first time in a long, long while he’d dreamt seeing things though, and on the night right after his day out at the pool with Haruka.

Haruka was his roommate here in university, and an art major. Makoto was pursuing a degree in education; he hoped to be a teacher for the blind after graduation. They pretty much knew only each other on campus – Makoto didn’t usually talk to anyone else much, since he couldn’t even see them, and Haruka wasn’t much of a social type either – so they’d spent a lot of their spare time together, whether it was mealtimes, or running errands, or Haruka painting in their room while Makoto typed his class assignments on his Braille-keyboard laptop. Haruka had known Makoto was blind from the first day when he’d walked smack into one of his easels which hadn’t been put away, but it wasn’t until yesterday that Makoto learnt something important about his friend of a few weeks.

“Later on, when we’re in the water, just hold up your arm if you need me.”

“Because it’ll be too noisy in the pool for you to hear me?”

“The pool usually isn’t crowded. It’s because my hearing aids aren’t waterproof, so I take them off when I swim.”

“Your hearing aids - ?”

“I’m actually deaf.”

To say Makoto was surprised was an understatement. Haruka went on to reassure him he’d be by his side the whole time, so he would never be too far away if Makoto needed help.

“But then how would you be able to swim if you have to watch me?”

“I never meant to do any swimming today. I just wanted to share my hobby with you, like you did for me.” Makoto had divulged his love for singing to Haruka a few days before when the latter had aught him belting out a favorite tune with his headphones on. He’d even gotten Haruka to sing a few lines too, and was pleasantly surprised to find that he had a pretty good voice. Haruka had only given vague responses to his enthusiastic suggestion that they go out for karaoke together sometime though, and he now supposed he knew why.

He’d spent the afternoon floating on his back at one end of the pool while Haruka swam circles around him, content to just feel the water lapping against his body. He hadn’t felt this relaxed in a long time, and had thanked Haruka profusely for taking him later on their way back to campus. He looked forward to the next time they could go together.

Aftr he’d washed and dressed, he headed to the cafeteria to join Haruka for breakfast. They always ate at the table closest to the door, so Makoto could find it easily. Once he’d sat down at the table with his tray of food, he heard Haruka put down his fork. “Hey Makoto, are you doing anything later?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“They can you come with me to the mall? I need to buy some things.”

“Sure!”

It was a Saturday, and the mall was particularly crowded. Makoto’s walking stick usually created a small pocket of space in front of him as people stepped aside to let his pass, but today he kept whacking people’s ankles instead as they pressed in around him. He had to hold on to Haruka’s hand tightly to make sure he wasn’t separated from him. Then suddenly, over the din of the crowds came the high-pitched shrill of a fire alarm.

The entire place fell eerily silent for a split-second, then someone screamed and chaos broke out. Makoto felt himself wrenched apart from Haruka as panicked hordes rushed past him. He was swept along by them for a few horrifying moments, like a small boat caught on a raging sea, until he managed to retreat to a wall and was no longer pressed forward. Only then did he dare to inch slowly along the wall back to where he’d been separated from Haruka, calling the other’s name over the alarm’s loud blare. “Haru! Haru!”

“Makoto!” he finally heard Haruka cry faintly from somewhere up ahead, and he doubled his efforts in an attempt to get to him faster. He was struggling against the flow of the crowds as he fumbled blindly forward, not sure what he was feeling for. Would Haruka reach out to grab him? Was he not able to see Makoto in the midst of all the people? How was a blind man supposed to find anyone in this situation?

“Makoto!” came the cry again, louder this time. Makoto left the wall and barged through the crowd, and his outstretched arms found another wall. He felt along its surface before a hand pulled him down so he was crouching. He somehow recognized the feel of the hand from his dream… “Haru?”

“Makoto.” Haruka buried his face in the other’s shirt, and it took Makoto a few moments to realize he was sobbing.

“Haru, what’s wrong?”

Haruka said nothing but continued to hide his face in Makoto’s chest, and as he ran a hand through the other’s hair in an attempt to soothe him, he brushed against an ear and felt that it was bare.

“Haru, where are your hearing aids?” Makoto immediately reminded himself that Haruka couldn’t hear anything he said. They must have been knocked out in the confusion. He said nothing more then, but held Haruka close as the turmoil raged on around them.

“It’s okay. It’s going to be okay,” he whispered, as if comforting a child having a nightmare. Miraculously, he felt Haruka’s sobs slow down as his friend nodded. “Ha – haru?”

“Sing for me. Please.”

“Uh… okay.” Makoto adjusted himself so he was sitting against the wall with Haruka in his lap, then took a deep breath and hummed the first tune that came to mind. The crowds were thinning now, and if there really was a fire it didn’t seem to have approached yet. He simply stroked Haruka’s hair, and sang until it was as if the alarm had faded away into the background.

…

“No, I couldn’t hear you,” Haruka replied the day after when asked whether he’d somehow been able to hear Makoto’s voice during the fateful event. It turned out the fire had been on another floor of the mall, and was luckily under control before it could spread to the rest of the building. In the end, they had been found by the mall’s security guards who were checking the other floors for any shoppers that got left behind. Haruka never let go of Makoto’s hand though, not even after they were on their way back to campus.

“Then why did you ask me to sing?”

“I imagined your voice, and that helped me calm down. In my head, you were singing this melody.” Haruka then hummed snatches of a tune.

“That’s the same one I sang yesterday!”

“I know. I heard you sing it before in my dream. I usually don’t hear sounds when I sleep, so I remember it clearly.”

“You – you heard me in your dream?” Makoto paused. “Haru, are your eyes blue?”

“Yeah. How did you know?”

“My dream told me. I also don’t see things in my dreams ever since I turned blind, but I’ve been dreaming of water ever since that day at the pool.”

“And I was in your dream too?”  
“Yeah, you were floating right next to me.” Makoto got up from Haruka’s bed and stretched. “Hey, do you want to come home with me next weekend?”

“Come home with you? You’re asking me to stay over?”

“If you want to.”

There was silence for a while. Then, “I’d love to.”

Makoto smiled, and in his mind he pictured Haruka smiling back. “It’s a deal then.”

**Author's Note:**

> I still kept my first draft of this - went on for three whole pages of foolscap paper, and that was just until how Makoto and Haruka met for the first time at uni. Maybe one day I'll publish it though, for the nostalgia if nothing else.


End file.
